When I was 16 years old, a friend of mine, Bob Belby owned a car called an AMC Gremlin. I recall it was silver with blue interior and a blue racing stripe too. A nice feature was a spare tire on the back covered with the same blue vinyl as the interior. Back then, Bob asked me if I would paint a Beach Boy album album cover on the spare tire cover. So, I did. I was only 16 at the time, but it came out O.K. Bob seemed to have liked it, and I enjoyed doing the painting for him. I wasn't Rembrandt, I was just a teen that liked to do art stuff every so often.

Just like an old time movie let us fade to black and fade into present day. Mrs. Philly Sartori, a wonderful woman and mother to my dear friends Carl, Anne and Dr. Hockey, had passed away at 90 years old. God bless her. While at her wake, Bob Belby approached me and it was such a joy to see him after all these years.

He mentioned he had hoped to see me there due to a picture he photographed on his wall that morning. He showed me on his phone, and sent me the picture.

I was so stunned. I was over joyed, honored even, that after more than 39 years Bob had kept and framed my painting.

I suppose there is no moral to the story that I can think of, but I feel one may exist. I just simply never knew how much that painting meant to Bob and his memories of that car we all enjoyed driving to nowhere each night. It is a constant reminder of his youth, and now mine too. Thank you bob for such a nice and unexpected gift of that picture. I will treasure it as you have done with the painting all these years.

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